And what have I accomplished? Thanks to Steve and Dierdre Metzler, who gave me a tour of the local pubs and restaurants, I have learned something important. Guinness in Ireland is a completely different beast from Guinness anywhere else; here, it’s a silky smooth ambrosia with not a hint of bitterness. It went down so easy I could have easily slid 3 or 4 of them down my throat, but given my current sleep-derived state, I restrained myself to one.

Of course, then we had to follow up with Irish coffee, and yeah, in a few minutes my head will touch the pillow and I will be spending an evening deep in Tír na nÓg.

On my trips there I have conducted extensive research into the vexed question of whether Guinness served in Ireland is better tha Beamish served in Ireland, and my conclusion was that Beamish just edged it.

Ah a good auld creamy pint of Mothers Milk (Guinness for you none Irish of us). Enjoy the finest Ireland has to offer.
I suggest a trip to Guiness Brewery and Jameson Distillery while in Dublin.
And if you’re heading up northwards to Queens always worth the extra trip to Giants Causeway and of course Bushmills distillary (worlds oldest licenced Distillary, 1608) just round the corner form it.
Enjoy the trip, you’ll find we’re not all believers in the giant spaghetti monster, or any other fancy do-da in the sky. And even those that are are decent folk as long as you don’t ridicule them too badly.
And don’t skimp on the blasphemy, we’ll organise a lawyer for you if needed.

Argh… for all those who like to hate on American beer, all I can say is: I understand (for the most part). However, if you’ve had a decent brew from one of the good microbreweries around here, then your perspective is likely quite different. I’m on the east coast, so Dogfish Head, Victory, and Brooklyn are all good beers. But if the cost gets to be too much, do what I do.

Put on your chemist hat (don’t worry, I was a business major, and am now a lawyer) and brew your own! I’m happy to report that on a nice weekend like tonight, I’m quite inebriated off of the 2 beers I have on tap in my warm house. Brew your own and have beer that is even better (gasp!) than the amazing Guinness!

The US microbrewery scene is excellent, though – I know Silicon Valley, Oregon around Portland and Georgia around Atlanta and a couple of strange redneck towns in the Carolinas, where I (worryingly) seem to fit in. All their beers are super, but see my Belgiumm post.

I do not like Guinness here in the U.S. We took the brewery tour while in Dublin, when I said I might not want my free pint, Dr. Paisley told me he’d finish it. I started, he turned and asked if he could take it. I cringed back clutching my glass and going “No Way!” Yum.

For whatever reason we have a lot of fine local and regional breweries here in Kansas City. Boulevard Brewery, now the largest Missouri-owned brewer in the state… is down the hill from my house and I can’t name all the restaurant/breweries that have sprung up in the last 15 years or so.

I think we quit drinking any crap beer in about 1995 or 6, we had a load of cans for the recycler and there was a line beyond where there were no beer cans anymore. And now we have a new glass recycler that has put up bins just about everywhere–you don’t need to go up to the city’s recycle lot on Deramus or wherever (there are three of them, all in fairly industrial spots).

I wanna go back and spend a couple of weeks in Ireland, We now also have a friend who lives in Leitrim.

PZ, beer is made from hops. Hops is a bittering agent; stout is supposed to have a hint of bitterness whereas some varieties are supposed to be very bitter and tangy.

It’s a myth that Guinness is best in Ireland as professional tasters will tell you. Freshness is the issue. Problem beer is beer that has soured or been damaged in shipping or storage. Bitter=good. Sour=bad. The problem with ordering Guinness in America is that bars here sometimes don’t sell enough and the keg is old or else they don’t bleach their tubes out often and sour impurities enter the stream. If you go to an American bar that specializes in stouts and has a wise clientèle, the Guinness will be just as fresh as in Ireland.

The reason Guinness tastes different in Dublin is because it is not allowed to ferment as long and therefore has less alcohol content, making it seem smoother and also allowing to drink more. This is because it is taxed by specific gravity and in order to remain competitive in the home market it has to have less alcohol (as well as matching local tastes and demands). Guinness shipped to America has 5-6% alcohol as opposed to 3.5-4.1% in Ireland. In Singapore it’s 7-8%.

There’s a microbrew here called Two Brothers. I don’t like everything they make, but you can always taste the quality. There was a “beer school” at the local Whole Foods where you paid $10 and got to try like 20 different beers. One time around beer #12 we were given a taste of Guinness as a “palette cleanser” Guinness tasted like fucking flavored water. There was no body, no character, no nothing. It was awful, really like gallon of water mixed with a teaspoon syrup then overloaded with fake coloring so it looks real. A decent microbrew in the US is far above the Guinness they ship overseas.

If you’re ever looking for a truly great American stout and you’re near the Cleveland area, you gotta stop by Great Lakes Brewing Company http://www.greatlakesbrewing.com. The selection overall is outstanding and has won multiple awards, and if you stop by at the right time of year we have a bourbon barrel aged “blackout” stout that is by far the best I’ve ever had anywhere http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/73/27143

Also, cheers to Paddy-O for mentioning Dogfish Head, they are consistently innovative and excellent.

When I was 12, one morning I rushed to school without any breakfast and promptly fainted in Assembly. My estranged mother recommended to my father (single parent) that he give me a glass of Guinness every evening because I was “at that stage of development” and needed it. The advice was duly followed and I was sent to the back door of the local to profer an old cow creamer jug for filling with a half pint every evening just before our tea.

My mother (66) and her mother (89) both still drink a pint of Guinness every evening, which they collect at 5pm from the pubs in their respective villages here in Cornwall. They say the draught stuff now available in cans is alright for an emergency but isn’t the same otherwise. When I visit they insist I immediately partake of the good stuff too – usually along with pointed remarks that my pallor/skinniness/fatigue etc is entirely due to my not keeping up the habit. I always drink the stuff when I go out for a session but somehow I can’t yet bring myself to ‘knock on the back door’ every evening.

Sorry for being spoilsport, but I consider that:
1/ Doctors say that the maximum dose of alcohol for pregnant women is zero. I am not pregnant (btw I am a man :-)), but it is interesting.
2/ Perhaps most drinking people are reasonable, but some are not. Alcohol destroy many lives.
3/ I have a tendency of depression. For people like me, alcohol is very dangerous. The risk to become alcoholic is high.
4/ Alcohol is bad associated with all medicines.
5/ Delirium tremens is not, as many people believe (e.g. #28), the fact to have hallucinations because of too much drink. It is the fact to miss alcohol and it is very painful, just like missing heroin.
6/ It is very difficult to stop alcohol, much more difficult than stop cigarettes.

1. Guinness Draft Stout: The tap beer typically infused with nitrogen on dispensing. It’s the pint with the fancy cascade and head most people associate with Guinness.

It does vary as beer is a perishable product that generally doesn’t travel well. I’ve consumed this product in Ireland many times and in at least 10 other countries, including the USA.

I taste only small differences at different locations, including the USA. The draft cans with the patented widget in them (love ‘em) also are very close approximation to the in-country draft product. Most of the draft product is probably locally brewed, so differences in local water, malts, hops, (and maybe yeasts as well) will have an impact on flavor. Sure, it’s nice to tip a pint in Ireland; but (per Michelin) it does not rate a trip for that purpose. Nevertheless: A superb and classic tipple.

2. Guinness Extra Stout: Usually sold in 12-ounce bottle in the USA. Completely different flavor profile from the Draft product. Much more bitter, heavier, stronger. My first experience with Guinness was GES and I still love it.

3. Guinness Foreign Extra Stout: Like the GES except “turned up to 11.” Over the top for my taste.

GUINNESS® is GUINNESS® – wherever you are. We always use pure, fresh water from natural local sources for the GUINNESS® stout brewed outside Ireland. That said, in blind tests (with a bunch of highly cynical journalists) none of our sample could tell the difference between Irish-brewed GUINNESS® and the locally produced variety. All the GUINNESS® sold in the UK, Ireland and North America is brewed in Ireland at the historic St. James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin.

(Of course they have a vested interest in promoting their product as uniform.)

I agree with everything you state except the discussion of hops. Hops are a flavoring agent (and to a lesser extent: preservative and they have some impact on physical/chemical processing in the kettle). They are one of the bittering agents (normally the main one; normally dwarfing the other bittering effects) in the brew.

But in Guinness Draft Stout, a signifcant part of the bitterness in the profile comes from the dark-roasted malt in the brew. (They could use dark-roasted barley, since the dark-roasting process normally destroys the amylases and diastases; but they use dark-roasted malt to comply with beer purity laws such as the Reinheitsgebot.)

The Guinness Extra Stout exhibits a much more pronounced hop bitterness.

In general, beers of the British Isles (including Ireland in this phrase) are hopped at much lower rates than are used in continental Pilsers, Belgian ales, and craft brews in the USA. So, other flavors come to the fore, especially malt (and sometimes finishing hops), which is why we love English, Irish, and Scottish beers.

Dr. Myers – If you’re having trouble sleeping, I recommend an Irish Boilermaker (don’t know if that’s what it’s really called, but that’s what I called it.)

I was in Dun Laoghaire a few years back, and a local pub operator suggested I try this to help me sleep. He poured an ounce of Irish whiskey (Powers, I think) into a shot glass, put a half-pint pub glass over the top, then tilted the pub glass back upright with the shot glass upside down inside the pub glass. Filled it with Beamish. When I tipped back the pub glass, the shot glass tilted back releasing the whiskey. After doing two in 30 minutes, I somewhat staggered back to the Royal Marine Hotel, found my room and slipped into a peaceful slumber at 8PM. Woke up refreshed at 7AM the next morning.

My love for Ireland, Irish whiskey and beer was cemented during that business trip.

Daniel de Rauglaudre:
“5/ Delirium tremens is not, as many people believe (e.g. #28), the fact to have hallucinations because of too much drink. It is the fact to miss alcohol and it is very painful, just like missing heroin.”

I know that. Delirium Tremens is the name of a Belgian Pale Ale. It has pink elephants on the label. That’s why I mentioned it in a comment about Belgian beer.

I gather you’re going to make it to Norn iron on Friday and are giving a lecture in QUB in Belfast ? Hoping to get along although I’m a bit pushed for time. You’ll find our accent even more colourful than the one down south.